The three partners of the Greek coalition government partners finally agreed upon the 11-billion euro austerity package, even though Venizelos (PASOK) and Kouvelis( Democratic Left) had their reservations.

“I disagree but I am forced to accept. We will not take the country to elections,” Venizleos said after the meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Wednesday afternoon. “As the Prime Minister considers that the austerity measures have to be agreed upon immediately I cannot but accept it.”

Venizelos added the preferred the option to first re-negotiate with Greece’s lenders on a two-year extension and then to proceed with the measures that are tailored to be implemented for the years 2013 and 2014.

Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras told reporters that the government’s aim is to finalize the whole package by end of August. The cuts are a precondition for Greece to remain in the euro zone. When asked about ‘horizontal cuts” the FinMin refrained from giving a concrete answer and said “We will try that the package has as little social impact as possible.”

“Official talks with the Troika will start now,” Stournaras said, meaning, the government will propose measures and the Troika will either approve or reject.

Leader of Democratic Left, Fotis Kouvelis said after the meeting that the three leaders talked about the chapters of the package and not about numbers. “There will be no measure that will burden the society,” Kouvelis told reporters.

Prime Minister Samaras, Venizelos and Kouvelis had to meet three times in order to agree. Greek media had reported that the three government partners were at odds over the spending cuts and that the cohesion of the Greek government was under threat to collapse. [but I didn’t tell you in order to avoid spoiling your day…]

Are Greeks ‘saved’ again? Either with additional 11-billion-euro cuts or without the euro, we the average citizens, are rushing to impoverishment. And they try to indoctrinate, we’re are saved…. meaning in fact, our lenders and their banks are saved.

4 Comments so far:

This is government code which translates into something like :”we’ll take whatever we can, whichever way we can, whenever we can, of the ordinary people to satisfy our masters ,the faceless elite, and our immediate superiors in Brussels/Berlin”.

Beware, the official theft has only just begun… but none of the real thieves will ever go where Manis Hatzidakis went today. That is simply unthinkable of course.

Dear Mr. Venizelos, if you disagree, then resign and stand up for the Greek people. Nobody has put you a knife on your throat to accept it! Of course the Greek government does not want again elections again. For obvious reasons, they would loose since they all (like expected) broke their promise “no more austerity”.